Method of performing hybrid automatic repeat request (harq) in wireless communication system

ABSTRACT

A method of performing hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) performed by a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includes receiving downlink assignments in a first subframe, a downlink assignment being transmitted based on a control channel element (CCE), the CCE being a logically indexed resource unit, receiving downlink data on a downlink shared channel in the first subframe, the downlink shared channel being assigned according to the downlink assignments, generating ACK/NACK signals which indicate successful or unsuccessful reception of the downlink data, and transmitting in a second subframe, the ACK/NACK signals by using uplink resources of a subset, the subset being mapped to the first subframe, at least one of the uplink resources being mapped to a plurality of CCEs in the first subframe. Limited resources for uplink feedback are effectively used to support HARQ operation.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to wireless communication, and more specifically,to a method of performing HARQ in wireless communication system.

BACKGROUND ART

With the demand on a high-speed, large-volume data communication systemfor processing and transmitting a variety of information such as radiodata as well as providing voice-oriented services, there is a need fordeveloping a technique for transmitting large-volume data through thewireless communication network whose capacity is similar to that of thewired communication network. Therefore, an error handling method isessential for minimizing data loss and for increasing systemtransmission efficiency.

Examples of the error handling method include a forward error correction(FEC) scheme and an automatic repeat request (ARQ) scheme. In the FECscheme, a receiver corrects an error by appending an extra errorcorrection code to information bits. In the ARQ scheme, when a receivedsignal has an error, a transmitter corrects the error by retransmittingdata. A hybrid ARQ (HARQ) scheme is a combination of the FEC scheme andthe ARQ scheme. According to the HARQ scheme, performance is enhanced byconfirming whether data received by the physical layer contains an errorthat cannot be decoded and requesting retransmission if there is anerror.

The HARQ operation is performed by at least one HARQ entity included ina user equipment (UE) or a base station (BS). The HARQ entity allowscontinuous data transmission while waiting for the feedback (i.e., theACK signal or the NACK signal) on successful or unsuccessful receptionof previous data transmission. In a downlink transmission, the UEreceives resource assignment information from the BS, and the HARQentity in the BS performs a HARQ process indicated by an HARQinformation. To support the HARQ entity, the BS may operate a pluralityof parallel HARQ processes.

Hereinafter, a downlink denotes a communication link from the BS to theUE, and an uplink denotes a communication link from the UE to the BS.The downlink transmission and the HARQ operation are performed in thefollowing manner. The BS transmits downlink assignment to the UE througha physical downlink control channel (PDCCH). Then, according to thedownlink assignment, the UE receives downlink data from the BS through aphysical downlink shared channel (PDSCH). When the UE receives thedownlink data from the BS, the UE transmits an ACK/NACK signal to the BSthrough a control channel (i.e., a physical uplink control channel(PUCCH)). If no error is detected in the received data, the ACK/NACKsignal is an ACK signal. If an error is detected in the received data,the ACK/NACK signal is a NACK signal. When the BS receives NACK signal,the BS may retransmit the data to the UE. The downlink data here can bereferred to as a codeword or a transport block.

Resources such as frequency, time, code and space, should bedistinguished between downlink transmission and uplink transmission, andthere needs to a scheme by which downlink resources and uplink resourcesare not overlapped. The scheme is called duplexing. The duplexing isclassified into frequency division duplexing (FDD), in which the uplinkand downlink are identified according to frequencies, and time divisionduplexing (TDD) in which the uplink and downlink are identifiedaccording to times.

In the FDD, frequencies having the same magnitude are symmetricallyallocated in the uplink and downlink. The FDD has been widely used dueto its structure suitable for symmetric services (e.g., voice calls). Inrecent years, however, researches on the TDD have actively beenconducted due to its structure suitable for asymmetric services (e.g.,Internet services). In the FDD, since the uplink and the downlink areidentified in the frequency domain, seamless data transmission can beachieved between a base station (BS) and a user equipment (EU) in thetime domain for each link.

The TDD is suitable for the asymmetric services since time slots eachhaving a different ratio can be allocated for the uplink and downlink.In addition, a channel condition is almost constant in the uplink anddownlink since data is transmitted and received in the same frequencyband in the uplink and downlink. Therefore, the channel condition can beimmediately estimated when a signal is received. Accordingly, the TDD issuitable for an array antenna technique.

In the TDD, an entire frequency band is used for uplink or downlink, andthe uplink and downlink are identified in the time domain. Thus, thefrequency band is used for the uplink for a certain period of time andis used for the downlink for the remaining periods of time, therebydisabling simultaneous data transmission/reception between the BS andthe UE. If the uplink and downlink are alternately allocated with thesame period of time, the BS does not have to inform whether a specifictime point is used for uplink transmission or downlink transmission.

In FDD as well as in TDD, uplink resources are more limited thandownlink resources. Because there are not enough uplink resources foruplink feedback on downlink data reception. For example, 4 resourceblocks are used for downlink transmission and 1 resource block foruplink transmission respectively. If a UE receives data from a BS usingthe 4 resource blocks, the UE only have 1 resource block to use totransmit an ACK/NACK signal for the data reception. This lack of uplinkresource makes HARQ more difficult because the BS should decide whetherto transmit a new data or retransmit the old data with relatively smallamount of uplink feedback information comparing with the downlink data.

A method of performing HARQ by effectively using limited uplink resourcefor uplink feedback is needed.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION Technical Problem

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method ofperforming HARQ in wireless communication system. And the method ofuplink ACK/NACK resource allocation related to the CCE index fordownlink assignment in TDD mode as well as in FDD mode is also providedfor the efficient utilization of uplink PUCCH resource and thecommonality between FDD and TDD modes.

Technical Solution

According to an aspect of the present invention, a method of performinghybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) performed by a user equipment(UE) in a wireless communication system is provided. The method includesreceiving downlink assignments in a first subframe, a downlinkassignment being transmitted based on a control channel element (CCE),the CCE being a logically indexed resource unit, receiving downlink dataon a downlink shared channel in the first subframe, the downlink sharedchannel being assigned according to the downlink assignments, generatingACK/NACK signals which indicate successful or unsuccessful reception ofthe downlink data, and transmitting in a second subframe, the ACK/NACKsignals by using uplink resources of a subset, the subset being mappedto the first subframe, at least one of the uplink resources being mappedto a plurality of CCEs in the first subframe.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a method oftransmitting an ACK/NACK signal performed by a user equipment (UE) in awireless communication system is provided. The method includes receivingdownlink data in a first subframe according to a downlink assignment,the downlink assignment being carried by a CCE, the CCE being a logicalresource unit, generating an ACK/NACK signal representing successful orunsuccessful reception of the downlink data, and transmitting theACK/NACK signal by using an uplink resource in a second subframe,wherein the second subframe is associated with the first subframe forHARQ operation, and the uplink resource is mapped to a plurality of CCEsin the first subframe.

ADVANTAGEOUS EFFECTS

Amount of reserved ACK/NACK resources is semi-statically configurable.Limited resources for uplink feedback are effectively used to supportHARQ operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a wireless communication system.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary structure of a radio frame.

FIG. 3 shows another exemplary structure of a radio frame.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary structure of a downlink subframe.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary structure of an uplink subframe.

FIG. 6 illustrates ACK/NACK resources grouping method according to anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates CCE to ACK/NACK resource mapping method according toan embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates CCE to ACK/NACK resource mapping method according toanother embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates CCE to ACK/NACK resource mapping method according toyet another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram illustrating ACK/NACK signal transmissionaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

MODE FOR THE INVENTION

The present invention will now be described more fully with reference tothe accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments of theinvention are shown. The invention may, however, be embodied in manydifferent forms and should not be construed as being limited to theembodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided sothat this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fullyconvey the concept of the invention to those skilled in the art. In thedrawings, the thicknesses of layers and regions are exaggerated forclarity. Like reference numerals in the drawings denote like elements.

FIG. 1 shows a wireless communication system. The wireless communicationsystem can be widely deployed to provide a variety of communicationservices, such as voices, packet data, etc.

Referring to FIG. 1, the wireless communication system includes a basestation (BS) 10 and at least one user equipment (UE) 20. The BS 10 isgenerally a fixed station that communicates with the UE 20 and may bereferred to as another terminology, such as a node-B, a base transceiversystem (BTS), an access point, etc. There are one or more cells withinthe coverage of the BS 10. The UE 20 may be fixed or mobile, and may bereferred to as another terminology, such as a mobile station (MS), auser terminal (UT), a subscriber station (SS), a wireless device, etc.

A downlink represents a communication link from the BS 10 to the UE 20,and an uplink represents a communication link from the UE 20 to the BS10. In downlink, a transmitter may be a part of the BS 10, and areceiver may be a part of the UE 20. In uplink, the transmitter may be apart of the UE 20, and the receiver may be a part of the BS 10.

Different multiple access schemes may be used for downlink and uplinktransmissions. For example, orthogonal frequency division multipleaccess (OFDMA) is used for downlink, and single carrier-frequencydivision multiple access (SC-FDMA) is used for uplink.

There is no limit in the multiple access scheme used in the wirelesscommunication system. The multiple access scheme may be based on codedivision multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA),frequency division multiple access (FDMA), SC-FDMA, OFDMA, or otherwell-known modulation schemes. In these modulation schemes, signalsreceived from multi-users are demodulated to increase capacity of thecommunication system.

The layers of the radio interface protocol can be classified into afirst layer (L1), a second layer (L2), and a third layer (L3) based onthe open system interconnection (OSI) model that is well-known in acommunication system. Compared with the OSI model, a physical (PHY)layer corresponds to the first layer L1, the medium access control (MAC)layer and the radio link control (RLC) layer correspond to the secondlayer L2, and the radio resource control (RRC) layer corresponds to thethird layer L3. The physical layer provides an information transferservice using a physical channel, the MAC layer is connected withphysical layer through transport channel, and the radio RRC layer servesto control radio resources between the UE and the network.

Examples of a downlink transport channel include a broadcast channel(BCH) for transmitting system information and a downlink-shared channel(DL-SCH) for transmitting user traffic or control messages. The usertraffic of downlink multicast or broadcast services or the controlmessages can be transmitted on the DL-SCH or an additional downlinkmulticast channel (DL-MCH). The downlink transport channel is mapped toa downlink physical channel. Examples of the downlink physical channelinclude a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) mapped to the DL-SCH,and a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for transmitting acontrol signal.

Examples of an uplink transport channel include a random access channel(RACH) for transmitting initial control messages and an uplink-sharedchannel (UL-SCH) for transmitting user traffic or control messages. Theuplink transport channel is mapped to an physical uplink channel.Examples of the physical uplink channel include a physical random accesschannel (PRACH) mapped to the RACH, a physical uplink shared channel(PUSCH) mapped to the UL-SCH, and a physical uplink control channel(PUCCH) for uplink control messages. The PUSCH is a physical uplinkshared channel, and is used when the UE transmits data in uplink.

The PDCCH is a downlink physical control channel and transmits controlinformation for the PUSCH or the PDSCH. An uplink grant that isscheduling information for uplink data transmission and a downlink grantthat is scheduling information for downlink data transmission can betransmitted through the PDCCH. Herein, the scheduling informationimplies control information including radio resource assignment fortransmitting downlink data from the BS to the UE or for receiving uplinkdata from the UE, a modulation and coding scheme (MCS), MIMOinformation, etc.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary structure of a radio frame.

Referring to FIG. 2, the radio frame includes 10 subframes. One subframeincludes two slots. The subframe is a basic unit of data transmission.Downlink or uplink scheduling is performed in a subframe unit when theradio frame is used in a TDD system. One slot may include a plurality ofOFDM symbols in a time domain and at least one subcarrier in a frequencydomain. One slot may include 7 or 6 OFDM symbols.

The radio frame structure is shown for exemplary purposes only. Thus,the number of subframes included in the radio frame, the number of slotsincluded in the subframe, and the number of OFDM symbols and subcarriersincluded in the slot can change variously.

FIG. 3 shows another exemplary structure of a radio frame.

Referring to FIG. 3, the radio frame includes two half-frames. Eachhalf-frame has the same structure. Specifically, each half-frameincludes 5 subframes and 3 fields, i.e., a downlink pilot time slot(DwPTS), a guard period (GP), and an uplink pilot time slot (UpPTS). TheDwPTS is used for initial cell search, synchronization, or channelestimation in a UE. The UpPTS is used for channel estimation in a BS anduplink transmission synchronization of the UE. The GP is used to removeinterference that occurs in uplink due to a multi-path delay of adownlink signal between uplink and downlink.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary structure of a downlink subframe.

Referring to FIG. 4, the first three OFDM symbols in the downlinksubframe are allocated to control region which is used for PDCCH. Therest of the symbols in the downlink subframe are allocated to dataregion for PDSCH. In the control region, other control channels such asphysical control format indicator channel (PCFICH), physical HARQindicator channel (PHICH) are also allocated apart from PDCCH. Thenumber of OFDM symbols in control region in a downlink subframe can beindicated by PCFICH. A UE reads control information on PDCCH and readsdata on PDSCH by means of the control information. The number of OFDMsymbols for PDCCH are given just as an exemplary purpose only.

The control region is composed of a plurality of control channelelements (CCEs), that is in a logical queue. Hereinafter CCEs is alogically indexed resource unit to carry a control channel (i.e. PDCCH).CCE corresponds to a group containing a plurality of physical resourceelements. For example, CCE can corresponds to a group containing9-physical resource element groups. The physical resource element groupis used to define mapping control channel to a physical resourceelement.

A plurality of PDCCHs can be transmitted in the control region. EachPDCCH carries control information, (i.e. downlink assignment). PDCCH istransmitted on a CCE basis or on consecutive CCEs aggregation basis. Theformat and the available bit numbers of PDCCH is determined based on thenumber of CCEs in the consecutive CCEs aggregation. Hereinafter, thenumber of CCEs used for PDCCH transmission is defined as CCE aggregationlevel. The CCE aggregation level is a unit based on which a UE monitorsPDCCH. The size of the CCE aggregation level is defined by the number ofcontiguous CCEs. For instance, the CCE aggregation level can be one of aset {1, 2, 4, 8}.

Table 1 below shows an example of PDCCH format, available number of bitsfor PDCCH according to the CCE aggregation level.

TABLE 1 PDCCH CCE aggregation Number of resource Number of format levelelement groups PDCCH bits 0 1 9 72 1 2 18 144 2 4 36 288 3 8 72 576

The CCE aggregation level can be different from UE to UE. For example,the CCE aggregation level (L) is 1 for UE 2, UE and UE 6. The CCEaggregation level (L) is 2 for UE 3 and UE 5. The CCE aggregation level(L) is 4 for UE 1 and UE 7.

The control information on PDCCH is called downlink control information(DCI). DCI contains uplink scheduling information, downlink schedulinginformation, uplink power control command, paging control information,and indicator for RACH response, etc. DCI format 0 is for PUSCHscheduling, DCI format 1 is for PDSCH codeword scheduling, DCI format 1Ais for compact PDSCH codeword scheduling, DCI format 1C is for verysimple scheduling of DL-SCH, DCI format 2 is for PDSCH scheduling inclosed-loop spatial multiplexing mode, DCI format 2A is for PDSCHscheduling in open-loop spatial multiplexing mode, and DCI format 3 and3A is for transmission power control for uplink channel.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary structure of an uplink subframe.

Referring to FIG. 5, uplink subframe is divided into a control regionand a data region. The control region includes PUCCH and the data regionincludes PUSCH. One UE does not transmit PUCCH and PUSCH simultaneouslyto hold a single carrier property when SC-FDMA is applied.

PUCCH is assigned to one UE in a subframe as a RB pair. And RBs in theRB pair occupy different subcarriers in each of the slots. This isreferred to as a frequency hopping of a RB pair in a slot boundary.

PUCCH supports multiple formats. That is, uplink control information,which has different bit numbers per subframe according to modulationscheme, can be transmitted on PUCCH.

The following table represents PUCCH format, modulation scheme and bitnumbers supported by 3GPP TS 36.211 V8.2.0.

TABLE 2 PUCCH Modulation Number of bits per format scheme subframe,M_(bit) 1  N/A N/A 1a BPSK 1 1b QPSK 2 2  QPSK 20 2a QPSK + BPSK 21 2bQPSK + QPSK 22

PUCCH format 1 is used to transmit scheduling request (SR), PUCCH format1a/1b is used to transmit an ACK/NACK signal, PUCCH format 2 is used totransmit channel quality information (CQI), and PUCCH format 2a/2b isused to transmit CQI and an ACK/NACK signal.

In an arbitrary subframe, PUCCH format 1a/1b is used when an ACK/NACKsignal is transmitted alone, whereas PUCCH format 1 is used when SR istransmitted alone. If an ACK/NACK signal and SR are transmittedsimultaneously, an SR resource assigned for positive SR transmission isused to transmit an ACK/NACK signal, and an ACK/NACK resource assignedfor ACK/NACK signal is used to transmit an ACK/NACK signal ans anegative SR.

Table 3 shows an example of downlink/uplink configurations of the radioframe in TDD system. The configuration of the radio frame indicates aspecific rule according to which all subframes are allocated (orreserved) for uplink or downlink.

TABLE 3 Configu- Switch-point Subframe number ration periodicity 0 1 2 34 5 6 7 8 9 0 5 ms D S U U U D S U U U 1 5 ms D S U U D D S U U D 2 5 msD S U D D D S U D D 3 10 ms D S U U U D D D D D 4 10 ms D S U U D D D DD D 5 10 ms D S U D D D D D D D 6 5 ms D S U U U D S U U D

In Table 3, ‘D’ denotes a subframe used for downlink transmission, and‘U’ denotes a subframe used for uplink transmission. Further, ‘S’denotes a special subframe that is used for a special purpose, such as,frame synchronization or downlink transmission. Hereinafter, a subframeused for downlink transmission is simply referred to as a downlinksubframe, and a subframe used for uplink transmission is simply referredto as an uplink subframe. For each configuration, a position and thenumber of downlink and uplink subframes are different from each otherwithin one radio frame.

A time point at which downlink is switched to uplink, or vice versa, isdefined as a switching point. A switch-point periodicity represents aperiod in which the same switching pattern is repeated between uplinkand downlink. The switch-pint periodicity is 5 ms or 10 ms. For example,in case of the configuration 1, switching occurs in the pattern ofD->S->U->U->U from 0th to 4th subframes. In addition, from 5th to 9thsubframes, switching occurs in the pattern of D->S->U->U->U in the samepattern as the previous switching. Since one subframe is 1 ms, theswitch-point periodicity is 5 ms. That is, the switch-point periodicityis less than one radio frame length (i.e., 10 ms), and switching isrepeated one time within the radio frame.

For all configurations, 0th and 5th subframes and the DwPTS are used fordownlink transmission. A 1st subframe in all configurations and a 6thsubframe in configurations 0, 1, 2, and 6 are composed of the DwPTS, theGP, and the UpPTS. A time length of each field varies depending onconfigurations. The remaining 8 subframes other than the 1st and 6thsubframes are composed of 2 slots.

If the switch-point periodicity is 5 ms, the UpPTS and 2nd and 7thsubframes are reserved for uplink transmission. If the switch-pointperiodicity is 10 ms, the UpPTS and the 2nd subframe are reserved foruplink transmission, and the DwPTS, and 7th and 9th subframes arereserved for downlink transmission.

The configuration in table 3 may be system information known by both theBS and the UE. The BS can inform the UE that an uplink-downlinkallocation state of the radio frame is modified by transmitting only aconfiguration index whenever the configuration of the radio framechanges. The configuration is a sort of downlink control information.Similarly to other scheduling information, the configuration may betransmitted on a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH).Alternatively, the configuration may be control information commonlytransmitted on a broadcast channel to all UEs existing in a cell. Inaddition, the configuration may be included in the system information.The number of half-frames included in the radio frame, the number ofsubframe included in the half-frame, and the combination of the downlinksubframe and the uplink subframe in the TDD system are shown forexemplary purposes only.

When it comes to HARQ operation, a UE receives downlink data in adownlink subframe and transmits an ACK/NACK signal as a feedback in anuplink subframe. This causes a problem especially when there are moredownlink subframes than uplink subframes in a radio frame. In table 3above, let ‘S’ indicate a downlink subframe. In case of configuration 2,a radio frame includes 8 downlink subframes and 2 uplink subframes. Thatis, the radio of downlink subframe to uplink subframe is 4:1. In thiscase, a UE receives data throughout 4 downlink subframes and feeds backACK/NACK signals in a single uplink subframe for HARQ operation. Whenthe number of downlink subframes are larger than that of uplinksubframes, radio resources used to transmit ACK/NACK signals areinsufficient.

So the linkage of downlink subframe and uplink subframe for uplinkACK/NACK feedback needs to be defined for each downlink/uplinkconfiguration in table 3, where one uplink subframe may carry ACK/NACKsignals for multiple downlink subframes depending on the downlink/uplinkconfiguration. A predefined relationship among downlink subframe(s) anduplink subframe(s) in order to avoid an excessive uplink ACK/NACKresource reservation is described hereinafter. The amount of reservedACK/NACK resources should be semi-statically configurable so that thenumber of ACK/NACK resources can be set less than the number of CCEs ina corresponding downlink subframe.

Semi-static DL/UL linkage in the configurations in table 3 according tothe present invention is described in table 4 below.

TABLE 4 configu- i-1 subframe number in radio frame i subframe number inradio frame i + 1 ration 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 U DD U U U D1 D2 U U U D3 D4 U1 U2 U D D U3 U4 U 1 D D D U U D D1 D1 U U D2D3 D3 U1 U2 D4 D D U3 U4 D 2 D D D U D D1 D1 D1 U D1 D2 D2 D2 U1 D2 D DD U2 D D 3 D D D1 U U U D1 D2 D2 D3 D3 D3 D U1 U2 U3 D D D D D 4 D D1 D1U U D1 D1 D2 D2 D2 D2 D D U1 U2 D D D D D D 5 D1 D1 D1 U D1 D1 D1 D1 D1D1 D D D U1 D D D D D D D 6 D D D U U U D1 D2 U U D3 D4 D5 U1 U2 U3 D DU4 U5 D

In table 4, special downlink subframes (indicated by ‘S’ in table 3) areused for downlink subframe, and indicated by ‘D’ to avoid confusions. AnACK/NACK signal corresponding to downlink subframe D#n is transmitted inuplink subframe U#n. For example, a downlink subframe D1 in radio framei corresponds to an uplink subframe U1 in radio frame (i+1). Even thoughthere are some subframes with no #n attached (D and U), those subframesare also linked to other subframes for ACK/NACK signal feedback.

In most configurations, all or some uplink subframes are linked tomultiple downlink subframes. In other word, one uplink subframe isassociated with at least one donwlink subframe. In configuration 0,there are 4 one downlink subframe-to-one uplink subframe correspondence,and 2 uplink subframes are not linked to any downlink subframe. Inconfiguration 1, there are 2 two downlink subframes-to-one uplinksubframe correspondence, and 2 one downlink subframe-to-one uplinksubframe correspondence. In configuration 2, there are 2 four downlinksubframe-to-one uplink subframe correspondence. In configuration 3,there are 2 two downlink subframe-to-one uplink subframe correspondence,and 1 three downlink subframes-to-one uplink subframe correspondence. Inother configurations, it is easily assumed the correspondencerelationship between downlink subframe and uplink subframe.

Hereinafter, uplink radio resource which is used to transmit an ACK/NACKsignal is called an ACK/NACK resource. The ACK/NACK resource can becombinations of resource block, cyclic shift and orthogonal cover. TheACK/NACK resource is assigned according to an uplink schedulinginformation, such as uplink grant. A subset which includes at least oneACK/NACK resource is called an ACK/NACK resource subset. An uplinksubframe can contain a plurality of ACK/NACK resource subsets. Thenumber of ACK/NACK resources in each of the ACK/NACK resource subsetscan be various.

In configuration 0, 1 and 3 respectively, two different downlink touplink subframe correspondences for ACK/NACK feedback exist in a radioframe. In these cases, amount of the ACK/NACK resources in an ACK/NACKresource subset may be adjusted depending on the uplink subframe to havethe same amount of ACK/NACK resources for all the uplink subframes. Orelse, the amount of ACK/NACK resource in all ACK/NACK resource subsetsmay be kept similar or same so that the amount of ACK/NACK resourcevaries depending on the uplink subframe.

The correspondence between downlink subframe(s) and uplink subframe(s)for an ACK/NACK signal feedback in each configuration of a radio frameis described above. From now on, the method of making ACK/NACK resourcesubsets in an uplink subframe is described. The method is about groupingor dividing ACK/NACK resources efficiently in a situation where thereare not enough ACK/NACK resources to deal with all downlink data in HARQoperation. The method is applied to a FDD system as well as a TDDsystem.

FIG. 6 illustrates ACK/NACK resources grouping method according to anembodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, three downlink subframes-to-one uplink subframecorrespondence is used in a radio frame configuration for HARQoperation. The three downlink subframes are indexed as i, (i+1) and(i+2) respectively and the one uplink subframe is indexed as j(>i+2).This means that the jth uplink subframe should carry ACK/NACK signalscorresponding to the three downlink subframes. So the ACK/NACK resourcesare divided into three ACK/NACK resource subsets where each subsetcarries ACK/NACK signals corresponding to one of the three downlinksubframes exclusively.

To generalize this, ACK/NACK resources in an uplink subframe are dividedinto L subsets when L downlink subframes are linked to that uplinksubframe for an ACK/NACK feedback. That means the number of ACK/NACKresource subsets in an uplink subframe is determined according to thenumber of downlink subframes linked with the uplink subframe.

Each subset contains same or different amount of ACK/NACK resources. Forconvenience, let's assume each subset contains same number of ACK/NACKresources, M, so that the uplink subframe contains L×M ACK/NACKresources in total. The ACK/NACK resource subset 1, 2, . . . , L includeACK/NACK resource 0 to M−1, M to 2M−1. and (L−1)×M to (L×M)−1respectively.

Then, M ACK/NACK resources in each subset are mapped to N CCEs in one ofthe L downlink subframes exclusively. CCEs in downlink subframe i aremapped to ACK/NACK resource 0 to M−1, CCEs in downlink subframe (i+1)are mapped to ACK/NACK resource M to 2M−1, and CCEs in downlink subframe(i+2) are mapped to ACK/NACK resource 2M to 3M−1. The number of CCEs ineach of the downlink subframes can be the same for each other ordifferent from each other. M can be configured as a value equal to orsmaller than N. Here, N value should be maximum number of CCEs in adownlink subframe since actual number of CCEs can vary dynamicallydownlink subframe by subframe.

In summary, when an uplink subframe carries ACK/NACK signals formultiple downlink subframes, ACK/NACK resources are divided intomultiple subsets so that ACK/NACK resources of each subset are linked toone downlink subframe exclusively.

The method of dividing ACK/NACK resource into a plurality of subsets isgiven by a math figure below.

$\begin{matrix}{{MathFigure}\mspace{14mu} 1} & \mspace{11mu} \\{\mspace{290mu} {N_{CCE}^{G} = {\sum\limits_{j = 0}^{N_{g} - 1}\; {N_{CCE}(j)}}}} & \left\lbrack {{Math}.\mspace{14mu} 1} \right\rbrack\end{matrix}$

Where a CCE group consists of CCEs in a single subframe and N_(CCE)(j)is the number of (Maximum) CCEs for jth CCE group. N_(CCE)(j) should bereplaced by N_(CCE) if the number of (maximum) CCEs for all subframes isset equal. N_(g) is the number of CCE groups in the PUCCH. N^(G) _(CCE)is equal to N_(g)×N_(CCE) if the number of (maximum) CCEs for allsubframes is set equal.

Hereinafter, a method of mapping between ACK/NACK resource and CCE isdescribed. ACK/NACK resources in a subset can be remapped to differentCCEs so that number of ACK/NACK resources in a subset can be smallerthan number of CCEs in a downlink subframe. As a result, amount ofreserved ACK/NACK resources is semi-statically configurable. Thisconfigurability and remapping approach can be applied to FDD mode aswell.

FIG. 7 illustrates CCE to ACK/NACK resource mapping method according toan embodiment of the present invention. It is assumed that M ACK/NACKresources in a subset are indexed from 0 to M−1 and N CCEs in a downlinksubframe are indexed from 0 to N−1 where order of CCE index can bevirtually interleaved within each PUCCH resource block (RB).

Referring to FIG. 7, there are 7 CCEs (CCE index ‘a’ through ‘g’) forPDCCH and only 5 ACK/NACK resources (index 0 through 4) are used totransmit ACK/NACK signals corresponding to PDCCH. Because N>M, the sameACK/NACK resource is remapped to CCE. In other words, a plurality ofCCEs are mapped to an ACK/NACK resource. CCEs ‘b’ and ‘c’ are mapped toACK/NACK resource 0, CCEs ‘d’ and ‘e’ are mapped ACK/NACK resource 1.But, CCEs ‘a’, ‘f’, and ‘g’ are mapped exclusively to individualACK/NACK resource 3, 2, 4 respectively.

Repeated ACK/NACK index to CCE index mapping causes restriction in PDCCHscheduling since a BS should consider a same ACK/NACK resource is notlinked to multiple PDSCH transmissions in a downlink subframe. However,this is the cost for reducing the required amount uplink ACK/NACKresources. In general, this ACK/NACK index to multiple CCE index mappingcan be allowed when L=1 as well. That is, when an uplink subframecorresponds to a single downlink subframe. Because there seems to be noreason to forbid the same mapping scheme to be applied. Furthermore,this mapping scheme can be also applied to FDD mode for efficient PUCCHresource utilization and commonality between FDD and TDD.

FIG. 8 illustrates CCE to ACK/NACK resource mapping method according toanother embodiment of the present invention. It is assumed that extendedCP, 3 RBs for ACK/NACK signal, 12 ACK/NACK resources per RB and 18 CCEsper downlink subframe are used.

Referring to FIG. 8, CCEs in subframe x are indexed 0 through 17 andCCEs in subframe y are indexed 0 through 17. When a UE receives CCEs inthe subframe x and y, the US converts the indices of the CCEs in thesubframe y. As a result, the indices of the CCEs in the subframe y areconverted into 18 through 35. The indices of the CCEs in the subframe xremains the same. And all the CCEs over the subframe x and y are indexed0 through 35. In such a manner, CCE indexes of multiple downlinksubframes become consecutive. Then, the converted CCE indexes can bemapped to ACK/NACK indexes straightforwardly or in a per-RB interleavedway.

When the number of ACK/NACK resources in a subset is smaller than thenumber of CCEs in a downlink subframe corresponding to the subset, someACK/NACK resources needs to be remapped to ACK/NACK resources. In thiscase, ACK/NACK resources in the subset is remapped only to the CCEs inthe corresponding downlink subframe. This remapping can be done byconverting CCE indexes within a certain range which is mapped to anACK/NACK resource subset in a downlink subframe. Therefore, differentCCEs in a downlink subframe is assigned a same converted CCE indexes.

FIG. 9 illustrates CCE to ACK/NACK resource mapping method according toyet another embodiment of the present invention. It is assumed thatextended CP, 3 RBs for ACK/NACK, 12 ACK/NACK resources per RB and 31CCEs per downlink subframe are used.

Referring to FIG. 9, subframe x and y are mapped to a feedback subframehaving ACK/NACK resources for the subframe x and y. The feedbacksubframe is used to transmit ACK/NACK signals corresponding to thesubframe x and y. The ACK/NACK resources in the feedback subframe aredivided into 2 subsets, because there are 2 subframes linked to thefeedback subframe.

Subset 1, which has ACK/NACK resource indices 0 through 17, is mapped tothe subframe x. And subset 2, which has ACK/NACK resource indices 18through 35, is mapped to the subframe y.

The number of CCEs in each subframe is larger than that of ACK/NACKresources in corresponding subset. Some ACK/NACK resources in subset 1are to be remapped to CCEs with indices 18 through 30 in the subframe x.And some ACK/NACK resources in subset 2 are to be remapped to CCEs withindices 0 through 12 in the subframe y.

Before remapping of ACK/NACK resources and CCEs, the indices of theextra CCEs are converted into other indices. These CCEs whose indicesare converted for remapping are called extra CCEs, and the CCEs whoseindices are not converted are called regular CCEs hereinafter. Forexample, the indices of the extra CCEs 18 through 30 in the subframe xare converted into 0 through 12, which already exists. And the indicesof the extra CCEs 0 through 17 in the subframe y are converted into 18through 35.

Then, the converted indices of extra CCEs 0 through 12 are duplicatedwith the indices of regular CCEs in the subframe x. And the convertedindices of extra CCEs 18 through 30 are duplicated with the indices ofregular CCEs in the subframe y.

ACK/NACK resources with indices 0 through 12 in the subset 1 are mappedto the extra CCEs with converted indices and to the regular CCEs withindices 0 through 12.

That is, the remapping takes place. But ACK/NACK resources with indices13 through 17 in the subset 1 are mapped only to the regular CCEs withindices 13 through 17.

The same remapping procedure is applied to the subframe y and the subset2.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram illustrating ACK/NACK signal transmissionaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 10, receiving downlink assignments (S100). Thedownlink assignments can be referred to as downlink schedulinginformation or downlink grant. The downlink assignments are received ina first subframe, which contains downlink data. The downlink assignmentis transmitted based on a control channel element (CCE). The CCE is alogically indexed resource unit for control region of the firstsubframe. The downlink assignment is transmitted on a downlink controlchannel which is PDCCH. The first subframe can be a downlink subframe ora plurality of downlink subframes in TDD system.

Receiving downlink data on a downlink shared channel in the firstsubframe (S110). The downlink shared channel is assigned according tothe downlink assignments. The downlink shared channel is PDSCH.

Generating ACK/NACK signals (S120). The ACK/NACK signals indicatesuccessful or unsuccessful reception of the downlink data.

Transmitting in a second subframe, the ACK/NACK signals or arepresentative ACK/NACK signal by using uplink resources (which ismapped to the CCEs carrying the downlink assignment) by using uplinkresources of a subset (S130). The subset is mapped to the firstsubframe, and at least one of the uplink resources is mapped to aplurality of CCEs in the first subframe. The second subframe can be anuplink subframe in TDD system.

All functions described above may be performed by a processor such as amicroprocessor, a controller, a microcontroller, and an applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC) according to software or program codefor performing the functions. The program code may be designed,developed, and implemented on the basis of the descriptions of thepresent invention, and this is well known to those skilled in the art.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and describedwith reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understoodby those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details maybe made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of theinvention as defined by the appended claims. The exemplary embodimentsshould be considered in descriptive sense only and not for purposes oflimitation. Therefore, the scope of the invention is defined not by thedetailed description of the invention but by the appended claims, andall differences within the scope will be construed as being included inthe present invention.

1-13. (canceled)
 14. A method of performing hybrid automatic repeatrequest (HARQ) in a time-division-duplex (TDD) mobile communicationsystem, performed by a user equipment, the method comprising: receivinga first downlink assignment on a first control channel in a firstdownlink subframe; receiving a second downlink assignment on a secondcontrol channel in a second downlink subframe; receiving first downlinkdata in the first downlink subframe using a radio resource identified bythe first downlink assignment; receiving second downlink data in thesecond downlink subframe using a radio resource identified by the seconddownlink assignment; determining an ACK/NACK resource in an uplinksubframe, wherein the ACK/NACK resource is determined based on a numberof a plurality of linked downlink subframes for HARQ feedback linkedwith the uplink subframe, the plurality of linked downlink subframesincluding the first downlink subframe and the second downlink subframe,the plurality of linked downlink subframes for the uplink subframe beingpre-defined; and transmitting an ACK/NACK signal for the first downlinkdata and the second downlink data using the ACK/NACK resource in theuplink subframe.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the ACK/NACKresource is determined based on a resource unit used for transmittingthe second control channel and the number of the plurality of linkeddownlink subframes for HARQ feedback linked with the uplink subframe.16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first control channel and secondcontrol channel are physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) and theresource unit is a control channel element (CCE).
 17. The method ofclaim 14, wherein the second downlink subframe includes a control regionand a data region in a time domain, the second control channel beingtransmitted in the control region, the second downlink data beingtransmitted in the data region.
 18. The method of claim 14, wherein theplurality of linked downlink subframes includes the first downlinksubframe, the second downlink subframe and at least one downlinksubframe.
 19. A method of acknowledging the reception of downlink datain a time-division-duplex (TDD) mobile communication system, performedby a user equipment, the method comprising: receiving a downlinkassignment on a control channel in a downlink subframe; receivingdownlink data in the downlink subframe using a radio resource identifiedby the downlink assignment; determining an ACK/NACK resource in a uplinksubframe, wherein the ACK/NACK resource is determined based on a numberof at least one linked downlink subframe for HARQ feedback linked withthe uplink subframe and a resource unit used for transmitting a controlchannel for one of the linked downlink subframes, and the at least onelinked downlink subframe includes the downlink subframe, and;transmitting an ACK/NACK signal for the downlink data using the ACK/NACKresource in the uplink subframe.
 20. The method of claim 19, wherein aradio frame includes a plurality of downlink subframes and the uplinksubframe, and the uplink subframe is linked with the at least onedownlink subframe which is defined in the radio frame or a previousradio frame.
 21. The method of claim 20, wherein the link for HARQfeedback between the uplink subframe and the linked downlink subframesis predefined depending on downlink/uplink configuration of the TDDmobile communication system.
 22. The method of claim 19, wherein thecontrol channel is a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and theresource unit is a control channel element (CCE).
 23. The method ofclaim 19, wherein the ACK/NACK signal is a representative ACK/NACKsignal for a plurality of linked downlink subframes.
 24. The method ofclaim 19, wherein the downlink subframe includes a control region and adata region in time domain, the control channel being transmitted in thecontrol region, the downlink data being transmitted in the data region.25. A user equipment of acknowledging the reception of downlink data ina time-division-duplex (TDD) mobile communication system, wherein theuser equipment is configured for: receiving a downlink assignment on acontrol channel in a downlink subframe; receiving downlink data in thedownlink subframe using a radio resource identified by the downlinkassignment; determining an ACK/NACK resource in a uplink subframe,wherein the ACK/NACK resource is determined based on a number of atleast one linked downlink subframe for HARQ feedback linked with theuplink subframe and a resource unit used for transmitting a controlchannel for one of the linked downlink subframes, and the at least onelinked downlink subframe includes the downlink subframe, and;transmitting an ACK/NACK signal for the downlink data using the ACK/NACKresource in the uplink subframe.
 26. The user equipment of claim 25,wherein a radio frame includes a plurality of downlink subframes and theuplink subframe, and the uplink subframe is linked with the at least onedownlink subframe which is defined in the radio frame or a previousradio frame.